Young doctors in Lahore demand end to 'VIP culture' in govt hospitals

LAHORE: Young doctors on Thursday gathered to protest against the alleged ‘VIP’ culture prevalent at public hospitals.

Refusing to accept the suspension of Medical Superintendent Jinnah Hospital and three professors over the death of Zohra Bibi, the young doctors demanded an end to what they call preferential treatment of VIPs at the hospitals.

The young doctors said public hospitals neglect the poor and prioritise the powerful. They said the poor patients often do not get hospital beds and medicines and have to wait very long to access medical facilities. The ‘VIP’ patients, on the other hand, are immediately provided beds and medicines.

They further said that the General Hospital has 110 beds in the emergency ward but they receive more than 2,000 patients daily.

No major hospital has been built in the city since 1995, they added.

The young doctors called for Chief Minister Punjab to invest money in upgrading the hospitals instead of handing out compensations to victims.

The Medical Superintendent and the three professors were suspended following the death of Zohra Bibi, a 60-year-old kidney patient who had failed to get a bed in the hospital and died on the cold floor of the hospital earlier this month.

CM Punjab Shehbaz Sharif had visited the patient’s family in Kasur and handed over a financial compensation cheque worth one million rupees to the bereaved family.